1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to identify the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms must be as extensive in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)